Fashion Envy
August 2nd 2009 04:25
Fashion seems to have the ability to bring out the best and the worst in women. Are we all just jealous, mean creatures with rapidly deployed claws upon seeing another specimen with better clothes, better accessories, or a better physique? Sadly I think the answer is yes. When fashion is so much about your exterior, it’s difficult not to get caught up in the comparisons, and it’s also very easy to become a total bitch when you feel outdone, or worse, ugly as a result.
Fashion envy, resulting in fashion nastiness, is an interesting concept when fashion is actually about beauty for most of us who are under its spell. Fashion for me means pretty things that I can take home and make myself pretty with too. Of course there are some days when nothing is making me feel pretty, not even three inches of makeup, but those days are sometimes when fashion becomes even more crucial. At least if I can put on a fabulous outfit, something in my exterior world should be going right. A great ensemble, great accessories or a great pair of shoes can lift our mood and put a spring in our step. And yet when we see that on someone else, or we sit down to watch it on Fashion TV, it can make our blood boil and our own self esteem plummet. And that’s when the green eyed monster can make the nicest of us become unjustly nasty and critical beyond our fashion credentials probably permit.
How many times have you been with a few girlfriends and one of you has commented on what a fabulous looking woman is wearing, how she’s walking, how much she weighs, what her hair looks like – the list is basically endless. And no matter how perfect she may appear, I bet one of you had something bad to say, all in the name of making you all feel better, but bad nonetheless. Was she actually a touch too thin? Looked like she didn’t have two brain cells to rub together? Was her head actually slightly horsey? Were you sure she had extensions? It seems as much as we doll ourselves up and think it’s great, if someone we don’t know looks as good or better, we feel threatened and ultimately have to convince ourselves they don’t look that fabulous after all. Interesting.
Fashion greatness should be encouraged and great fashion on others should act as an inspiration. If you admire someone’s style, it should be a kept as a mental note for a possible new type of outfit the next time you hit the mall, not an excuse to start a frenzy of nasty whispering with your mates. Likewise, in an ideal world, the girl with killer arms and abs should inspire me to hit the gym. More often than not, it drives me to cupcakes.
At the end of the day, fashion meanness is stemming from our own insecurities and the desire to be the best dressed, best looking, best whatever, but feeling like we’re not. And even if you really do believe the girl that just went past should so not be wearing those knee socks with those shoes, sometimes it pays to take the advice of your mum and stay mute when you have nothing nice to say.
Fashion envy, resulting in fashion nastiness, is an interesting concept when fashion is actually about beauty for most of us who are under its spell. Fashion for me means pretty things that I can take home and make myself pretty with too. Of course there are some days when nothing is making me feel pretty, not even three inches of makeup, but those days are sometimes when fashion becomes even more crucial. At least if I can put on a fabulous outfit, something in my exterior world should be going right. A great ensemble, great accessories or a great pair of shoes can lift our mood and put a spring in our step. And yet when we see that on someone else, or we sit down to watch it on Fashion TV, it can make our blood boil and our own self esteem plummet. And that’s when the green eyed monster can make the nicest of us become unjustly nasty and critical beyond our fashion credentials probably permit.
How many times have you been with a few girlfriends and one of you has commented on what a fabulous looking woman is wearing, how she’s walking, how much she weighs, what her hair looks like – the list is basically endless. And no matter how perfect she may appear, I bet one of you had something bad to say, all in the name of making you all feel better, but bad nonetheless. Was she actually a touch too thin? Looked like she didn’t have two brain cells to rub together? Was her head actually slightly horsey? Were you sure she had extensions? It seems as much as we doll ourselves up and think it’s great, if someone we don’t know looks as good or better, we feel threatened and ultimately have to convince ourselves they don’t look that fabulous after all. Interesting.
Fashion greatness should be encouraged and great fashion on others should act as an inspiration. If you admire someone’s style, it should be a kept as a mental note for a possible new type of outfit the next time you hit the mall, not an excuse to start a frenzy of nasty whispering with your mates. Likewise, in an ideal world, the girl with killer arms and abs should inspire me to hit the gym. More often than not, it drives me to cupcakes.
At the end of the day, fashion meanness is stemming from our own insecurities and the desire to be the best dressed, best looking, best whatever, but feeling like we’re not. And even if you really do believe the girl that just went past should so not be wearing those knee socks with those shoes, sometimes it pays to take the advice of your mum and stay mute when you have nothing nice to say.
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